Review – Settling by Shelley Workinger

At the beginning of the summer, Clio Kaid was one of a hundred teens brought to a secret Army installation. But it was no ordinary camp and they weren’t ordinary kids…

Picking up where “Solid” left off, Clio and her friends realize that they aren’t ready to go home; they’re determined to stay on campus and continue their journey of self- discovery. But someone doesn’t feel the same way and will do anything to drive them away – even kill.

Friendships will be tested, abilities will evolve, and more secrets will come out as the teens race to stop the killer before he sets his sights on one of them…

My Review

Settling continues only a couple of weeks after the end of the first book Sound, where the Kids with the Cx9 gene are adapting to life after the controversy at the end of the first book. They decide to stay on at the compound as they finally feel like they belong with their peers as they all have the same gene. They’ve decided to pursue careers and they begin internships that appear to be linked to their powers. However, once they think things are back to normal, there is a death on campus that sends Clio into a tail spin.

Clio started off just fine in this book, but things soon changed aged after the death on campus. She became a bit withdrawn and more focused on herself. I didn’t really like that at first but the longer that I read the book I understood why she was doing so. She finds it hard to talk to people as she is a bit moodier than usual and at times I wish she would just talk to someone instead of just curling into a ball. She puts distance between herself and her friends and even her boyfriend, but he doesn’t seem to be around a lot either.

We meet a couple of new teens that have decided to come to campus now that the world knows about the CX9 gene. I liked both of these new characters and they slot into Clio’s group perfectly. We don’t see a lot of them but they seem like good kids.

Shelley has done an incredible job with the new direction of Clio’s story but things aren’t always great for her and it’s an emotional rollercoaster for Clio. There was something that Clio did that had me going “No, no. no!!” but she tries her best to deal with it. I liked the new twists and turns but I felt a bit sad for Clio as she seems to be all alone. I look forward to Sound the final book in the series to see which direction Clio and her peers go next…

I received a copy of this book from the Author in exchange for an honest review.

About the Author

Shelley Workinger grew up in Maine, graduated from Loyola University New Orleans, currently resides in New Jersey, and considers all of them home. When she's not working on the SOLID series, she's chatting about FoodFic on her blog; stop by and let her know what you're reading and what they're eating!